Sarkozy's Win, Group by Group

By MARJORIE CONNELLY

Published: May 8, 2007

Nicolas Sarkozy was elected President of France, by a margin of six percentage points, defeating S?l? Royal by assembling a majority of older voters, high earners, farmers and professionals. Young voters, those lower paid and the unemployed cast most of their ballots for Ms. Royal, according to a nationwide election day poll conducted by Ipsos.

Ms. Royal's appeal for female solidarity during the campaign did not persuade a majority of women. Older women gave two-thirds of their votes to Mr. Sarkozy, and younger women were evenly divided between the two candidates. However, Ms. Royal was preferred by 55 percent of women ages 35 to 59.

Almost all the voters who identify with the Union for a Popular Movement backed Mr. Sarkozy, the party's candidate. He was also preferred by a large majority of voters from Jean-Marie Le Pen's extreme right National Front party. Members of Fran?s Bayrou's centrist Union for French Democracy gave two-thirds of their votes to Mr. Sarkozy. And he received 55 percent from voters who are not associated with any party.

Ninety percent of Socialists supported their party's candidate, Ms. Royal, and about the same percent of Communists supported her. Ms. Royal also received two-thirds of the votes from the Green Party. The Ipsos poll was conducted May 6 by telephone with 3,609 registered voters throughout France. Like most public opinion polls in France, the survey is based on a quota sample instead of a probability sample, and therefore a margin of sampling error cannot be calculated. MARJORIE CONNELLY